1639
JEREMIAH HORROCKS (1617-1641)
This English astronomer observed the transit of Venus across the sun using the 'Camera Obscura', 24th November. The German astronomer Kepler predicted the event, but Jeremiah Horrocks corrected Keplers calculation to the exact day of the year.

The famous painting by William Richard Lavender in 1903 shows Horrocks observing the transit of Venus. This painting's at the Astley Hall Museum. Another work of art depicting this event is ‘First Observation of a Transit of Venus’ by Eyre Crowe, housed at the Walker Art Gallery / National Museums, Liverpool.

A great resource.

--Paul Burns PhD
THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
An Illustrated Chronological History of the Development of Motion Pictures Leading to the Discovery of Cinematography in the 1800s
http://precinemahistory.net
https://archive.org/details/precinemahistory.net
https://youtu.be/jF8pWCPdsWM
Follow Us @RealPreCinema

This is extraordinary! The 1859 translation is sufficiently modern English as to be readily understandable. The work communicates not only the science, but the heart, soul and emotions of Horrox 400 years ago when he made his unprecedented observation. Horrox references "Alhazen the Arabian". This is a scientific reference to "Book of Optics", AD 1011~1021, the very birth of science itself. Horrox speaks glowingly of Kepler, in poetry, but also corrects Kepler's errors. Kepler died in 1630 and is therefore almost a contemporary of Horrox, rather than historical as we would consider him. Additional poetry is scathingly critical of Ptolemy, which is reasonable scientifically, but also of Americans, which is really a cultural insight into Horrox.

Science, and people, are extraordinarily fortunate to have available this remarkable document, which spans science, natural philosophy, humanity, and history.

Caveat: Additional information exists in the 1662 Johannes Hevelius Latin publication, notes from Hevelius, and a Table of Contents, which were not translated in 1859. Here (as of 11 May 2012):
http://www.univie.ac.at/hwastro/books/horrocks1639.pdf